Precious metals in the medieval Mediterranean. Mining, processing and circulations

Silver on one side, gold on the other? The medieval Mediterranean was an area in which precious metals were produced and circulated, intertwining three worlds, both friends and foes: Roman Christianity to the West, byzantine Christianity to the East, and Islam to the South. Precious metals (gold, silver, copper and lead), at the origin of numerous objects of the material culture and currencies used by the economies, filled the societies. They were mined, processed, commercialised, controlled and hoarded by a wide variety of stakeholders and institutions, from simple peasants to emperors.

This colloquium proposes to open up a large-scale survey on these products, which raised a number of issues for Mediterranean societies. In recent years, the work of historians and archaeologists has considerably renewed the broad syntheses of the past by providing additional data and developing new methods. Yet, few projects cover the full circuit of metals, from production to use, from a wide historical perspective. This shortcoming is mainly due to the disciplinary and geographic silos which are still too prominent.

It therefore seemed appropriate to review the state of methods and knowledge to initiate comparative analyses between the West and the East in the Long Middle Ages. The aim of bringing together researchers from various horizons and disciplines is to open discussions in order to gain a better understanding of how these productive systems worked and to better assess the extent of their influence on medieval economies and societies.